29 June 2012

the moral of the story here is that if some stranger approaches you with valuable items for sale; at a ridiculously low price and the first thought that crosses your mind is that the items may have been stolen - dont buy them. damn.

25 June 2012

press released we just received from rabbi meir hirsh leader of neturei karta in occupied palestine.

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excerpt:

Your Excellency, Mr. President, in your wonderful and exalted position as leader of the great nation of Egypt, may you stand courageous in revealing the truth about the evils of Zionism and condemning it, as this is of immense and immeasurable importance.

[...]

We, as Torah true Jews, oppose the very existence of the Zionist State of Israel. The Zionists do not represent the Jewish people in any manner whatsoever. They have no right to speak in the name of the Jewish people. Therefore, their words, their declarations and actions are not in any way representative of the Jewish people.

This is because the Zionist's seizing of power over the Holy Land is antithetical to Jewish law, and the Zionists do not behave like Jews at all. They desecrate the sanctity of the Holy Land.

In the near future, with the return of full Palestinian sovereignty over the entire Holy Land, we are confident, with the help of the Almighty, that the Palestinian regime will behave towards us with goodness and justice.

Just as those previous regimes in Palestine, though they were of the Islamic faith, still in all, they fully accepted the Jewish residents who where strict in the observance of the Jewish religion and so it will once more be relived; Jew and Arab will again coexist peacefully.

We, as religious Jews, will have the full right to practice our religion without any disturbances. Together we will work to see the blossoming of the Holy Land, to the prosperity of both peoples; Arabs and Jews alike, with trust, peace, and tranquility.

KENNEDY, J., delivered the opinion of the Court, in which ROBERTS,C. J., and GINSBURG, BREYER, and SOTOMAYOR, JJ., joined. SCALIA, J., THOMAS, J., and ALITO, J., filed opinions concurring in part and dissenting in part. KAGAN, J., took no part in the consideration or decision of the case.

10:16Amy Howe:The Ninth Circuit is reversed in part and affirmed in part. Justice Kagan does not participate.

10:17Amy Howe:The Court rules that Section 3, 5, and 6 are preempted.

10:17Tom:Most of the key provisions of SB1070 (3 of 4) are invalidated. One provision is held not to be proved preempted; it must be construed.

10:18Amy Howe:It was improper for the lower courts to enjoin Section 2(B), which requires police officers to check the legal status of anyone arrested for any crime before they can be released.

10:19Kali:We will have more substanative analysis of the decision in Arizona v. US from Lyle later this morning or early this afternoon. We are also looking forward to guest analysis on the decision from Marc Miller and Jack Chin from Univ. of Arizona and UC Davis law schools, respectively, Lucas Guttentag of Yale & Stanford, Jay Sekulow from the ACLJ, Peter Spiro at Temple, John Eastman at Chapman, Rich Samp at the Washington Legal Foundation, and Kevin Johnson, also at UC Davis. Tune back in for their posts.

10:19Tom:The provision that the Court says is not yet preempted is the "check your papers" provision that commands officers to check immigration status.

10:20Amy Howe:The opinion also says that today's ruling does not foreclose other preemption and constitutional challenges to the law.

10:20Tom:The court says that it is not clear whether application of this provision will interfere with immigration law.

10:20Amy Howe:There are ongoing proceedings on Section 2(B) and whether it involves racial profiling; that issue was NOT before the Court today.

the supremes left intact section 2(b) the "show your papers please" portion of arizona SB 1070 when this should have been the first part of the bill struck down! supposedly, there is more litigation concerning the legality of section 2(b) moving along through the courts.

24 June 2012

egypt electoral commission puts the turnout at 51.85%some 13 million votes (51.73%) were cast in the runoff in favor of mohammed morsi.

the opponent ahmed shafiq received 48.27%

amongst other things, president-elect morsi along with his party, the muslim brotherhood, pledges to restore the country to civilian rule and to write a new constitution which will protect all egyptians, reports press tv correspondent, karim gamal el-deen.

the times-picayune filed suit in civil district court (assigned to judge lloyd medley) friday, 22 june 2012, against mayor mitch landrieu's administration for refusing to make public the complete initial police report about an incident that occurred on 19 april 2012.

The suit cites the state's public-records law, which holds that "the initial report of the officer or the officers investigating a complaint ... shall be a public record." In addition, it says, courts "have consistently held" that the entire report must be public, including information about the victim [La. R.S. 44:3(4)(a)(b)(i)-(vii)]. The only exception is when the report identifies someone as the victim of sexual abuse, the suit says. ~ read more

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La. R.S. 44:1 et seq., public records requests, is a subject that we're somewhat familiar with as we've exercised our rights under it to access public records. mostly from the city of alexandria, louisiana -- but also, if memory serves, at least once -- from the rapides parish district attorneys office and once from the rapides parish police jury.

while we've never considered filing suit, a violation of the public records law should be considered a very serious offense.

it's been shown -- at least once, by the 3rd circuit appeals court [heath vs city of alexandria .pdf 10/06/2010 CA-10-0280], that even if you win a public records request lawsuit -- you cannot force the governmental body or agency to pay a money judgement the trial court may have ordered them to pay as punishment.

this makes it next to impossible to find an attorney to take on such cases on a contingency fee basis or pro bono.

we believe that one way to cure this catch-22, is to amend the law in order to make the La. R.S. 44:1A.(3) public records custodian liable for and removed from office and jailed under a malfeasance in office charge if found to have violated the public records law;

especially if that violation involved deception by the custodian in withholding or editing out (redacting) any information that the requester is entitled to under the plain language of the statute, for example, like that what the times-picayune is suing over.

The (Monroe) News Star, through its attorney William McNew of McNew, King, Mills, Burch & Landry, has filed a “special motion to strike” in the case Hakim v Gannett, a defamation lawsuit filed last April by Monroe businessman Eddie Hakim.

Hakim alleged that the News Star defamed him in news articles written about his testimony in the recent federal trial of former Monroe City Council members Arthur Gilmore and Robert “Red” Stevens. Hakim was the chief prosecution witness in that trial. ~ read more

13 June 2012

this morning on the "talk back am 970 with fred and bob" radio program, co-host fred rosenfeld anointed mr. davenport to be the blogosphere replacement for the recently expired local shyster and toxic "blogger" greg aymond. with all this going on we'd have to agree that he would appear be the perfect aymond replacement. click here to download .mp3 audio file [2.50 mb].

this petition for damages is filed -- self-represented, by a local guy named michael hoover, who, according to the petition, is a private portfolio manager and tulane law school graduate, claims that he was damaged by mr. davenport's allegedly spreading false rumors about his character and integrity.

according to the petition mr. hoover says that he privately manages funds running into the hundreds of millions of dollars so as you can imagine he cant have that.

UPDATE-7 wednesday 28 march 2012: a caller into the ksyl talkback preshow wants to know if there are any updates on aymond's condition, to which bob madison replies that aymond is "still in icu, progressing slowly, responding slowly ... was told that this stroke was worse than the first one." click here to download clip [704 kb]